Ecological economics and health: introducing an emerging literature
Authors: Martin Hensher, Katie Kish
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2022)

We were delighted to see the recent publication in The Lancet Planetary Health by Lina Brand-Correa and colleagues,1Brand-Correa L Brook A Büchs M Meier P Naik Y O'Neill DW Economics for people and planet-moving beyond the neoclassical paradigm.Lancet Planet Health. 2022; 6: e371-e379Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar with its discussion of the great potential for ecological economics to connect with and inform public and planetary health. The authors did not, however, discuss the nascent but rapidly expanding research literature that has explicitly applied ecological and heterodox economics approaches to public health and health care. Ecological economists have themselves acknowledged that the broader social sphere, and especially human health and especially human caring work, has not received sufficient attention within the field, and have set out to address this deficit. Some have started to explore the crucial interconnectedness between patterns of overconsumption that damage human and planetary health and the harms of overconsumption of health care, and their association with "uneconomic growth".2Hensher M Canny B Zimitat C Campbell J Palmer A Health care, overconsumption and uneconomic growth: a conceptual framework.Soc Sci Med. 2020; 266113420Crossref PubMed Scopus (2) Google Scholar Other areas of focus examine the ways in which economic privatisation stunts ethical and effective response to public health crises,3Hensher M Kish K Farley J Quilley S Zywert K Open knowledge commons versus privatized gain in a fractured information ecology: lessons from COVID-19 for the future of sustainability.Global Sustainability. 2020; 3: e26Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar the implications of post-growth ecological macroeconomic models for public health, health-care, and social care systems,4Corlet Walker C Druckman A Jackson T Welfare systems without economic growth: a review of the challenges and next steps for the field.Ecol Econ. 2021; 186107066Crossref Scopus (5) Google Scholar and the challenges and opportunities that a post-growth or a degrowth economic paradigm might pose in these sectors.5Borowy I Aillon J-L Sustainable health and degrowth: health, health care and society beyond the growth paradigm.Soc Theory Health. 2017; 15: 346-368Crossref Scopus (15) Google Scholar We wholeheartedly agree with Brand-Correa and colleagues' proposition that ecological and pluralist economics approaches offer opportunities to build a society that centres on health and the environment.1Brand-Correa L Brook A Büchs M Meier P Naik Y O'Neill DW Economics for people and planet-moving beyond the neoclassical paradigm.Lancet Planet Health. 2022; 6: e371-e379Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar We hope that this Correspondence provides a point of entry for readers to some of the available work that has already begun to explore this potential, and to further stimulate development in this important space. MH declares payment or honoraria from University of Bayreuth for teaching and from Novartis SA Brazil for a presentation at the Novartis Access Conference 2021; being a member of the ministerial advisory board of the South Australian Health Performance Council; and being a board member (unpaid) for Glenview Community Services Tasmania. KK declares no competing interests. Economics for people and planet—moving beyond the neoclassical paradigmDespite substantial attention within the fields of public and planetary health on developing an economic system that benefits both people's health and the environment, heterodox economic schools of thought have received little attention within these fields. Ecological economics is a school of thought with particular relevance to public and planetary health. In this article, we discuss implications of key ecological economics ideas for public and planetary health, especially those related to critiques of gross domestic product as a measure of progress and economic growth as the dominant goal for economic and policy decision making. Full-Text PDF Open Access